Ahead of Telecoms Tech World next week James Monighan, who is chairing the M2M track at the event, discusses the current state of the M2M market, how important the customer experience is, and how the coverage doesn’t quite tell the full story

It’s becoming clear that the machine to machine (M2M) ecosystem is going to revolutionise everyday lives, especially as it morphs into the Internet of Things (IoT).

Yet the majority of reports on the topic focus on big numbers. A Strategy Analytics research report released earlier this week prophesises there will be 2.9 billion M2M connections in 2022, whilst ReportsnReports.com forecast that the wireless M2M market will grow at a 23% compound annual growth rate by 2018.

It’s all very impressive, but without any context it doesn’t tell the full story of the growth of the space.

James Monighan, formerly head of M2M strategy at Telefonica and now an interim and advisor on M2M, admits that there is “a time and a place” for such naval gazing, but argues the more interesting stories are around customer experiences.

“The market is growing and growing very rapidly, but I think there’s a danger in just chasing the numbers,” he explains. “If you want to make a profit, you need to deliver great services. But if your objective is to deliver great customer experiences, the profits will follow.

“The more people that share stories about where they’ve been successful – and where they haven’t, let’s be honest – I think that’s more powerful for the industry to work together to build that future,” he adds.

The customer story is a compelling one, and it was a vital aspect of Marc Benioff’s keynote at Dreamforce earlier this week, with the Salesforce CEO coining the term ‘internet of customers’.

Monighan agrees, instead using the term ‘internet of meaning’, as a Telefonica blog post published last month explains.

“The number of things, ultimately, isn’t really a very interesting measure,” admits Monighan.

“Cellular’s very important, don’t get me wrong. But devices will connect across all sorts of technologies, so we need to move on from that.

“If we provide meaning of value to customers, that’s what’s important because I’m not interested in connecting a device, that’s not my motivation as a customer,” he adds.

Another way in which the industry is altering, according to Monighan, is a shift in discussion from vertical to horizontal approaches.

“You hear more and more talk about the horizontal platforms and horizontal plays, which I think is a sign of the industry maturing,” he notes.

“Again that embraces the concept of the Internet of Things, or the Internet of Everything, where you can start to share data between devices and people to deliver really powerful experiences.”

With Telecoms Tech World just around the corner, Monighan notes that the “informative, educational [and] innovative” content is the key draw, adding: “I’m interested in the balance and the ‘co-opetition’ between the telcos and the platform providers.

“I think that will be really interesting, how that works together.”

James Monighan is speaking at the M2M track at Telecoms Tech World, 26-27 November at Olympia, London. Find out how you can attend here.